The phrase “singing off the wall,” referring to singing from projected words rather than a hymn book, first appeared in Canadian Mennonite in 2010. This image shows that the practice went back much further. Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., recently donated a collection of glass “lantern slides” probably in use circa 1924-45. This particular slide of the hymn “Blessed Assurance” was created by the United Church Publishing House in Toronto. The donation also included several “radio mat” templates which a congregation could use to create its own slides, thus dazzling youth or Sunday school singing times, Christmas programs or budget meetings with new technology.
For more historical photos in the Mennonite Archival Image Database (MAID), see archives.mhsc.ca.
Photo courtesy of the United Church Publishing House / Mennonite Archives of Ontario
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